Some vehicles can be controlled from within a vehicle, such as the driver of a car or pilot of a plane. Some vehicles can be controlled remotely, such as by an individual with a remote control associated with an unmanned vehicle such as aircraft, spacecraft, land craft, water craft, or submarine, among other types of vehicles. In some situations, these unmanned vehicles can be beneficial.
For example, in some situations, the vehicle may be too small for an individual and/or the control equipment to fit within the vehicle. Further, in some instances, the individual and/or control equipment may be too heavy.
Unmanned vehicles (UV) may be used, for example, in situations where it is desirable to keep an individual out of harm's way. For instance, it may be useful for military and/or law enforcement personnel to enter buildings and/or other enclosed structures and/or spaces without the risk of harm to the personnel.
Entry into such structures or spaces may be desirable for various reasons. For instance, it may be desirable to search the interior of a structure, to provide surveillance and/or reconnaissance, to apprehend individuals, or fire on targets within such structures or spaces.
Such vehicles also may have access in manners that are not available to the personnel. For example, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can enter a structure on a floor above the ground level. In such instances, defenses may not be implemented based upon such a mode of entry or may be less than at other entry points, among other benefits.
Another example of the benefits of certain types of unmanned vehicles may be the ability of a submarine type vehicle to navigate under water for potentially much longer than a person may be able to. Unmanned vehicles also may be able to navigate through tighter spaces, in some instances.
However, in many unmanned vehicles, the vehicles are controlled in a manner similar to a full scale version of the vehicle. For example, if the vehicle is a helicopter, the controls may include pitch, roll, yaw, and various speed controls, among other control functionality.
Although such designs can be very responsive, the user in control of the vehicle often has to be specially trained to control the vehicle and, in some instances, even those skilled at controlling full sized vehicles, may not have the skills that are applicable to controlling such vehicles. In addition to the training taking time for the user to learn the skills to control the vehicle, it may be that the individual that is to control the vehicle is located in a remote location and cannot be trained because the user is inaccessible. As such, since there are likely to be few trained personnel, the vehicles cannot be implemented in the field very efficiently in some instances because the trained user has to be available at the location of the remote controller and therefore, the logistics of making the system operation become more complex with the logistics of providing the correct personnel.
Further, in many devices, the positioning and/or navigation of the vehicle is accomplished in whole or in part with Global Positioning System (GPS) information. However, when navigating in a building, cave, or other covered or multi-level structure, navigation using GPS can be ineffective, because the GPS signal may not transmit through the structure and/or the GPS equipped device cannot identify what level of the multi-level structure it is on, with certainty.